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Electric Hot Tuna

The name Hot Tuna invokes as many different moods and reactions as there are Hot Tuna fans — millions of them. To some, Hot Tuna is a reminder of some wild and happy times. To others, that name will forever be linked to their own discovery of the power and depth of American blues and roots music. To newer fans, Hot Tuna is a tight, masterful duo that is on the cutting edge of great music.

All of those things are correct, and more. For more than four decades, Hot Tuna has played, toured, and recorded some of the best and most memorable acoustic and electric music ever. And Hot Tuna is still going strong — some would say stronger than ever. The two kids from 1950s Washington, D.C. knew that they wanted to make music. Jorma Kaukonen, son of a State Department official, and Jack Casady, whose father was a dentist, discovered guitar when they were teenagers (Jack, four years younger, barely so). They played, and they took in the vast panorama of music available in the nation’s capital, but found a special love of the blues, country, and jazz played in small clubs.

Jorma went off to college, while Jack sat in with professional bands and combos before he was even old enough to drive, first playing lead guitar, then electric bass. In the mid-1960s Jorma was invited to play in a rock‘n’roll band that was forming in San Francisco; he knew just the guy to play bass and summoned his old friend from back east. The striking signature guitar and bass riffs in the now-legendary songs by the Jefferson Airplane were the result.

Great American Taxi

Great American Taxi are a rock & roll classic, a timeless mixture of gutsy pop, calloused hand country, blue-eyed R&B, and bare-knuckle barroom chooglin’ with songs for the everyman and woman grinding out the working week and anxious to shuffle the day’s cares away. The inheritors of the good times-bad times mojo of Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Eagles, and Lowell George-era Little Feat, GAT are boogie rock champs with big beating hearts backed up by thousands of gigs and highway miles – real music for real people living each day as best they can, dreaming about Friday nights and scoring a few breaks in this wicked world...

Gasoline Lollipops

Oteil Burbrbridge to lead Super Jam for Friday NedFest!

Oteil Burbrbridge to lead Super Jam for Friday NedFest!

In the long tradition of super groups at our festival, this year multiple Grammy-winning bassist Oteil Burbridge of Dead & Company and the Allman Brothers will be leading a truly epic ensemble. First of all, he has invited his amazing multi-instrumentalist brother Kofi Burbridge of the Tedeschi Trucks Band. Then he’s called on guitarists John Kadlecik of Further and Dark Star Orchestra and Ian Neville of Dumpstaphunk. For drums and percussion he has picked the awesome Jay Lane of RatDog, Further, Primus (and more) and Weedie Braimah of The Nth Power. On vocals, Lyle Divinsky of The Motet will be joined by Alfreda Gerald, whose range is so broad she sang with both the London and New York Philharmonic Orchestras and toured with Warren Haynes. Top it all off with the Trey Anastasio Band horn section consisting of Jen Hartswick and Natalie Cressman and boy have we've got a one-of-a-kind night you won’t want to miss! Special thanks to Justin at MusicMarauders for making this a reality!

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Taj Mahal Trio

In September 2014, some 50 years after moving to Los Angeles to form the band Rising Sons with fellow blues musician Ry Cooder and Jessie Lee Kincaid, Taj Mahal hightailed it to Nashville to receive an honor he called “one of the most powerful and wonderful things that could ever happen in my life.” Celebrating decades of recording and touring that have nearly singlehandedly reshaped the definition and scope of the blues via the infusion of exotic sounds from the Caribbean, Africa and South Pacific, the two-time Grammy winning singer, songwriter, film composer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist was feted with the Lifetime Achievement for Performance Award at the 13th Annual Americana Honors and Awards.

Keith Moseley (born February 5, 1965) is an American musician and songwriter, who plays bass guitar among other instruments for The String Cheese Incident, a jamband from Boulder, Colorado, of which he was a founding member.

He has written and provides vocals for a number of songs for the band, including "Resume Man", "Joyful Sound" and "Sometimes a River". Before he was with the String Cheese Incident, Moseley played guitar in the band Whiskey Creek Warriors, which played around the Colorado ski scene.

Moseley plays primarily a Lakland 55-94 and a Modulus Genesis 5. However, he also played a Modulus Quantum, Lakland Hollowbody, Eminence upright bass and a Fender Precision bass on the much lower key in the post-String Cheese Incident gigs. Moseley for most of his String Cheese Incident days used SWR amps and Goliath 4x10 cabinets, but in later years has played through Ampeg SVT-4 Pro with 6x10 cabinets. He occasionally will perform solo acts, playing acoustic versions of String Cheese Incident songs, and covers. He plays a Martin D-35 acoustic while playing these gigs.

Tyler Grant

National Flatpicking Champion Tyler Grant is an internationally recognized guitar virtuoso, songwriter, vocalist and leader of the band Grant Farm. Tyler has appeared at most major US festivals and performed thousands of concerts and guitar workshops worldwide. He was an original member of the Emmitt-Nershi Band and was a sideman for Abigail Washburn, April Verch and Adrienne Young. He has produced three solo albums and three releases by Grant Farm for his own Grant Central Records. The latest release, Meeting on the Mountain, an inspired collaboration with the band Fruition, spawned the concept of the Meeting on the Mountain® LIVE Broadcast, a radio-style musical program, of which Tyler is host.

Melvin Seals and JGB

Melvin Seals has been a powerful presence in the music industry for over 30 years with a long-established reputation as a performer, recording artist and producer. Melvin is most revered for his powerful, high-spirited, Hammond B-3 organ, and keyboards in the Jerry Garcia Band. Melvin spun his B-3 magic with the Jerry Garcia Band for 18 years and in doing so helped pioneer and define what has now become “Jam Band Music”. From blues to funk to rock to jazz, Melvin Seals serves up a tasty mix with a little R&B and gospel thrown in to spice things up.

Steve Kimock and Friends featuring Jeff Chimenti

A master of improvisation for over four decades, Steve Kimock has been inspiring music fans with his transcendent guitar speak, voiced through electric, acoustic, lap and pedal steel guitars. While one can say that his genre is rock, no one niche has ever confined him. Instead, through the years, he’s explored various sounds and styles based on what’s moved him at the time, whether it’s blues or jazz; funk or folk; psychedelic or boogie; gypsy or prog-­‐rock; traditional American or world fusion.

Threaded through this expansive and highly nuanced musical landscape is Kimock’s signature sound, the prodigious product of his ability to articulate crystal-­‐clear tone, melody and emotion into intricately woven music crafted with technical brilliance. His passion and devotion to performing live is matchless, and his unparalleled ability to embrace and capture his audiences musically is the stuff of legend.

Jeff Chimenti

Jeff Chimenti (born October 21, 1968) is an American keyboardist, best known for his ongoing work with former members of the Grateful Dead. Since May 1997 he has played with Bob Weir & RatDog, and has also played on every tour of The Dead (including the Fare Thee Well lineup) and Furthur. He currently plays with Dead & Company.[1][2]

Fletcher’s Grove

Known for their high-energy shows, the band mixes a fierce rhythmic foundation, dual guitar solos, and an Appalachian tinged mix of genres that makes standing still nearly impossible. By focusing on musical intricacy and creating seamless improvisation, Fletcher’s Grove has captured the imaginations of thousands in the Mountain State and beyond.

Fletcher's Grove has hit the festival season's hard playing festivals like All Good Music Festival, Hookahville, Summer Camp Music Festival, The Werk Out Music Festival, Highland Jam, Kind Roots, Hookahnanny, Hookah in the Hills, Masquerade Ball, Camp Barefoot, WV State Fair, Mon Arts Festival, Woodlands Spring Jubilee, Live on the Levee, Recipe Family Cookout, and Halloween Masquerade Ball.

Euforquestra

Eufórquestra (pronounced yoo-FOHR-keh-struh, think euphoria+orchestra) is energy and rhythm personified. An ever-evolving sound that has been influenced by music from all over the world with an emphasis on funk, pocket and groove. For over a decade the band has been igniting dance floors across the country, blending the roots of funk, soul, afrobeat, reggae and dub to create a sound that “explodes, dances and melts in your ear with sheer bliss"(Chris M. Slawecki; AllAboutJazz.com).
In 2015, EUF collaborated with many different featured guests and continued develop their reputation as a band of musical chameleons with the ability to adapt to a wide variety of different styles. Collaborators in 2015 included DJ Logic, Eddie Roberts (New Mastersounds), Jennifer Hartswick (Trey Anastasio Band), Kyle Hollingsworth (String Cheese Incident), Kim Dawson (Pimps of Joytime), Ayo Awosika, Kevin Kinsella (formerly John Brown's Body), members of The Motet and more.

Flash Mountain Flood

Colorado Bluegrass Music Society’s Young Pickers

CBMS is a highly-regarded, progressive Colorado organization that leads in education, promotion, preservation and proliferation of bluegrass music through its involvement of fans, musicians, businesses and promoters in festivals, jams, events, concerts and educational programs. It is a social network, an information resource and a powerful voice for bluegrass music, which is apparent in our website, festivals, newsletter, concerts, membership, educational programs and partnerships.

Paper Plane

Hailing from Denver, Colorado, Paper Bird first emerged from the same environs that launched such outfits as Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats and the Lumineers. The group has toured extensively throughout the U.S., sharing bills with the aforementioned bands, as well as Daryl Hall & John Oates, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and Shakey Graves.

“Paper Bird is a band that possesses a sound that’s more than the sum of its parts,” Oates effuses. “It’s the coming together of two perfect trinities. It has three distinctly unique female lead singers whose harmonies blend together as one...united with an inventive, cohesive rhythm section trio. I loved their sound from the first time I heard them and they just keep getting better. They are a true musical family united by a unique and pure artistic vision...a rare quality in this day and age of so much disposable and less than original music.”

Tony Furtado

Very few musicians of any stripe so personify a musical genre as completely as Tony Furtado embodies Americana roots music. Tony is an evocative and soulful singer, a wide-ranging songwriter and a virtuoso multi-instrumentalist adept on banjo, cello-banjo, slide guitar and baritone ukulele who mixes and matches sounds and styles with the flair of a master chef (he’s also an accomplished sculptor, but that’s another story). All of the music of America is in Tony’s music. Relix hit the nail on the head when writing of Tony: “True talent doesn’t need categories."

A native of Pleasanton, California, who now makes his home in Portland, Oregon, Tony Furtado took up the banjo at age 12, inspired by the Beverly Hillbillies TV show and a sixth grade music report. He first attracted national attention in 1987, when he won the National Bluegrass Banjo Championship in Winfield, Kansas. Not long after that, Tony opted for the life of a full-time professional musician, joining Laurie Lewis & Grant Street. A second victory at Winfield, in 1991, bookended his years with Grant Street.

Vince Herman

He's Back!

Vince Herman of Leftover Salmon returns to NedFest this year for a Sunday set! We missed him last year, and since he's almost a NedFest institution, we couldn't let it go two years in a row. He'll be taking a short break from relentlessly touring with the Salmon boys and is bringing a few friends with him for a jam in his old digs. Check back soon for word on who will be joining him.

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Taarka

Described by SF Weekly as a “collision of Django Reinhardt and David Grisman,” Taarka is the new acoustic “supergroup” (Flagstaff Live) “presenting masterfully deep americana and gypsyjazz string band music!” Led by the husband-and-wife team of David Pelta-Tiller (mandolin, tenor guitar, vocals) and Enion Pelta-Tiller (five-string violin, vocals) Taarka fills out its unique sound with award-winning bassist Troy Robey and prodigious young guitarist Mike Robinson, Taarka is bringing their otherworldly, energetic music to venues across the US, Canada, Europe and Mexico.

David, a versatile picker raised in Virginia on a steady diet of bluegrass, Celtic, classical and gypsyjazz, and Enion Pelta-Tiller, an award-winning classically-trained violinist who can switch seamlessly between Bartok and bebop (not to mention Gypsy jazz, punk, rock, bluegrass) began their journey together in 2001. After meeting at a Brooklyn Browngrass gig, the two began a Gypsy jazz busker act in the New York City subway before hitting the road as Taarka.